Update: New Thai immigration rules for income!

[Spidey]

10 hours ago, elviajero said:

I does matter. It’s meant to be foreign income. That has always been the situation, but because the embassy letters/affidavits didn’t specify the source of income some people could get away with declaring any income source.

British Embassy letters did specify source of income.

[KhunFred]

5 hours ago, dontoearth said:

    What future retirees?  ????????  Thaivisaforum found 1,000's of their readers that were contemplating leaving the kingdom in the last few years, indeed actually did so.  I consider a system this complicated (compared to the top 15 retiree spots all over the world) as an invitation to leave.  

Absolutely spot on. Heretofore, Thailand has had a unique advantage among retirement destinations. They just threw that advantage away in a fit of imperial hubris.

[onera1961]

36 minutes ago, KhunFred said:

Absolutely spot on. Heretofore, Thailand has had a unique advantage among retirement destinations. They just threw that advantage away in a fit of imperial hubris.

What unique advantage did Thailand had that, for example, Panama or Costa Rica does not have. Just curious. 

[cornishcarlos]

6 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

What unique advantage did Thailand had that, for example, Panama or Costa Rica does not have. Just curious. 

 

Somtam...

[Olmate]

19 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

What unique advantage did Thailand had that, for example, Panama or Costa Rica does not have. Just curious. 

No Panamanians or Costa Ricans for starters!

[pookiki]

For those of us who are 'capable' of transferring 65,000 baht each month but would rather not for a variety of reasons, I hope the new regulations/orders preserve and clarify the 'combination' method.  If anyone has used the combination method in the past, I would be most interested if you needed to have your minimum bank balanced in the preceding year verified by your bank. Any advice from Ubon Joe would greatly be appreciated!

[ubonjoe]

28 minutes ago, pookiki said:

Any advice from Ubon Joe would greatly be appreciated!

The only change is to add in the ability to use money going into a Thai bank account instead of using proof of income from an embassy. If you have the proof from an embassy it will still be accepted.

[KhunFred]

34 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

Somtam...

Cost of living. Much lower in Asia.

[onera1961]

7 hours ago, dontoearth said:

I consider a system this complicated (compared to the top 15 retiree spots all over the world) as an invitation to leave.  

Thailand will be saved from its perpetual dependency on retirees and become like today's Malaysia by 2032. 

 

[KhunFred]

20 minutes ago, pookiki said:

For those of us who are 'capable' of transferring 65,000 baht each month but would rather not for a variety of reasons, I hope the new regulations/orders preserve and clarify the 'combination' method.  If anyone has used the combination method in the past, I would be most interested if you needed to have your minimum bank balanced in the preceding year verified by your bank. Any advice from Ubon Joe would greatly be appreciated!

No mention of 40 thousand baht transfers for those married to a Thai??

[pookiki]

13 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

The only change is to add in the ability to use money going into a Thai bank account instead of using a proof on income from an embassy. If you have the proof from an embassy it will still be accepted.

For example, if I maintain a minimum of 260,000 baht during the year prior to the extension of stay, then I would only have to show 45,000 baht/month arriving to my account each month - is this a correct assumption?  Must I have my bank book verified.  Or is the 'minimum' seasoned in the same manner as the 800,000 baht requirement?

[ubonjoe]

12 minutes ago, pookiki said:

For example, if I maintain a minimum of 260,000 baht during the year prior to the extension of stay, then I would only have to show 45,000 baht/month arriving to my account each month - is this a correct assumption?  Must I have my bank book verified.  Or is the 'minimum' seasoned in the same manner as the 800,000 baht requirement?

No changes to how the combination option is done. You prove you monthly income by showing your bank book or a statement from your bank.

The rules for the combination option does not state the money has to be in the bank for any amount of time but most offices want it to be in the bank for 3 months (60 days for first extension).

 

[pookiki]

5 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

No changes to how the combination option is done. You prove you monthly income by showing your bank book or a statement from your bank.

The rules for the combination option does not state the money has to be in the bank any amount of time but most offices want it to be in the bank for 3 months (60 days for first extension). 

 

Thanks very much!!

[ubonjoe]

22 minutes ago, KhunFred said:

No mention of 40 thousand baht transfers for those married to a Thai??

It is the same for marriage or retirement. You prove your income by showing it going into a Thai bank. There is no combination option for an extension based upon marriage.

[lamyai3]

1 hour ago, KhunFred said:

Opening the account with Bangkok Bank was fairly straightforward, but subsequent attempts to open another account at other banks were a circus. I never dreamed that banks would turn down money. This just shows how onerous the FATCA paperwork must be to Thai banks. Only Bangkok Bank could be blackmailed into this arrangement, because they have a presence in NYC as a wholesale bank.

Same story with all nationalities. FATCA isn't relevant at all regarding non americans, but requirements for opening accounts have tightened up across the board since around 2015.

[LivinLOS]

22 hours ago, Spidey said:

My Uk bank charges me £9.60 per SWIFT transfer. Only difference with using TransferWise is my SWift transfer takes several days to arrive in my Thai bank account.

The other difference is TW Fx rates are better than the Thai receiving banks TT inbound rate. 

 

The real savings with TW is better exchange rates and no hidden fees (many banks include a unpublished deposit fee) you do the Fx on TW and send exactly a precise amount in THB and thats the amount you get. Very transparent. 

[smedly]

so say someone transfers one yearly payment from outside Thailand  to a sterling account in Thailand (satisfies the "From home country") and then moves 65k baht a month from their sterling account to their Thai baht account - this in effect satisfies all requirements 

[LivinLOS]

22 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

but may not count as foreign transfer. Thai bank will need to confirm. 

No one yet got an FET using transferwise?

 

 

 

FETs are for over 50k USD now ?? Been a while since I moved larger amounts here.. IIRC I had to break a TW into 25k usd payments to do a larger conversion.. Hence neither would trigger the FET. 

[jacko45k]

14 minutes ago, smedly said:

so say someone transfers one yearly payment from outside Thailand  to a sterling account in Thailand (satisfies the "From home country") and then moves 65k baht a month from their sterling account to their Thai baht account - this in effect satisfies all requirements 

Or that yearly amount is equivalent to 800,000 baht (or more) and you can leave it alone for 3 months (or do not draw it below 800,000 baht), and lo and behold it qualifies for a retirement extension without income proof needed.

[Longcut]

18 hours ago, DRG said:

Very strange. I have been making deposits from my bank in Jersey, Channel Islands, to my KTB account for more than 10 years. In the bank book the transaction code is XISDT and on the statement I download, it is shown as 'Overseas transfer' with the amount in GBP deposited.

Sent from my SM-J701F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

If you are sending by way of SWIFT, that may be the difference. I am still sending it ACH. Swift cost a lot more. 

[david555]

28 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

FETs are for over 50k USD now ?? Been a while since I moved larger amounts here.. IIRC I had to break a TW into 25k usd payments to do a larger conversion.. Hence neither would trigger the FET. 

lower than the 50 000 usd can get an equal doc. but not named F.E.T ,but I think reason of transfer have to be on transferwise transfer 

Edited January 6, 2019 by david555

[smedly]

2 hours ago, JLCrab said:

Well from the "What about me?" and "Non-agent-centric view of the universe" departments, I just made my 3rd 65K+ baht FTT monthly deposit as shown in the passbook into Bangkok Bank .

 

I know at least one on here has postulated that the new monthly income extension-of-stay regime is intended to be so difficult that persons will be forced to use agents (thus the agent-centric view of the universe) but it doesn't seem that an 'FTT' next to your "not less than" 65K baht monthly deposit in your passbook can get much easier.

most people pay a fee per transaction (in my case 20 GBP) which is why many would prefer a single yearly transfer or possibly 2x 

[JLCrab]

6 minutes ago, smedly said:

most people pay a fee per transaction (in my case 20 GBP) which is why many would prefer a single yearly transfer or possibly 2x 

Well at least based on the available info the Thai IMM folks don't seem to prefer what you prefer and they want to see monthly deposits which saves them having an adding machine on every IMM office desk.

 

I just look at even the monthly costs versus 800K baht in the bank or logistical costs for the OA visa and the fees are not much bother to me.

[Pattaya46]

8 hours ago, dontoearth said:

What future retirees?  ????????  Thaivisaforum found 1,000's of their readers that were contemplating leaving the kingdom in the last few years, indeed actually did so.

I consider a system this complicated (compared to the top 15 retiree spots all over the world) as an invitation to leave.  

How is the Thai system complicated? 

To live here as a retiree you just need ONE visit a year to your Immigration Office with 1'900B and 3-4 documents. Far to be complicated. 

 

2 hours ago, KhunFred said:

Absolutely spot on. Heretofore, Thailand has had a unique advantage among retirement destinations. They just threw that advantage away in a fit of imperial hubris.

Ridiculous. From what we know now, the only change by Thai Immigration is to make things easier for people on Retirement or Marriage Extension; They didn't restrict any rule but at the opposite will add another option (without Embassy Letter) to get these Extensions. 

 

[smedly]

42 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Or that yearly amount is equivalent to 800,000 baht (or more) and you can leave it alone for 3 months (or do not draw it below 800,000 baht), and lo and behold it qualifies for a retirement extension without income proof needed.

what you say above is exactly what I do right now

 

for combo not exactly, because you would be using the monthly transfers to live on, that is why this is rather more complicated especially someone wanting to use a combo method

 

400k balance for 3x months and one 400k yearly transfer divided by 12 - at the time of extension application you may only be showing 400k balance but have transferred 400k per 12 months and spent it - the monthly income combo thing is quite honesty <deleted> up if they will not accept a single yearly transfer as opposed to monthly

Edited January 6, 2019 by smedly

[sometimewoodworker]

13 hours ago, ukrules said:

Is there anything, anywhere that says the income must come from outside Thailand ?

 

I'm going to be very surprised if this is the case.

I predict that very surprised is in your future, from the little translation SWMBO did

[Pattaya46]

7 hours ago, DogNo1 said:

It seems as though I guessed wrong that immigration would continue to accept any reasonable proof of retirement income.  It is apparent that the only acceptable proof being monthly deposits to or a lump sum in a Thai bank will be hugely profitable for Thai Banks.

//

People have theorized about why Thai Immigration has taken this step but, if you follow the money, the Thai banks and agents are the big beneficiaries.

Again this bank conspiracy theory! Seriously??? 

If that was true TI would just have stopped to accept Embassy Letters...

and (AFAIK) it didn't.

[JLCrab]

7 minutes ago, smedly said:

- the monthly thing is quite honesty <deleted> up

If that's what it takes to do the monthly deposit income based extension of stay versus the 800k baht in the bank or OA that's what I'll do and won't miss a beat.

 

[smedly]

2 minutes ago, JLCrab said:

If that's what it takes to do the monthly deposit income based extension of stay versus the 800k baht in the bank or OA that's what I'll do and won't miss a beat.

 

good for you

[JLCrab]

1 minute ago, smedly said:

2 minutes ago, JLCrab said:

If that's what it takes to do the monthly deposit income based extension of stay versus the 800k baht in the bank or OA that's what I'll do and won't miss a beat.

 

good for you

Thank you -- and this is for you: